Sarah Cowen-Strong: Us together alone is our favourite place to be

Happy 2018 and how was New Year’s Eve for you? We had a delicious empty page of a day, which began with plans of pastry, playlists and Prosecco, tartan frocks and kilts and ended with us both in our jeans waving our teacups to the fireworks on the telly.

We had bigger plans to start with. Friends were due to visit for a whole weekend of brisk walks, feasting and fizz ­– until they found themselves in the middle of a family dilemma, and we found ourselves alone, vowing to party on.

We still made the same painstaking Hogmanay pie, opened a bottle and turned up the fire, but fully succumbed to cosiness, stayed in our slippers and had an early supper. It was glorious.

We are very lucky in that we are more than content in our own company – indeed we regularly cooch up in the confines of a holiday camper van, hardly speaking to anyone else for days. But this, again, makes it more than easy to see that when I referred to the friends who couldn’t make it, I could easily have said: ‘our only friends.’

Ian and I are in a growing band of lucky duckies who, having found love a second time around, lack a certain shared history and a coterie of couples we have grown up with. Many couples of our age originally forged friendships at children’s schools and on freezing sidelines and it is these experiences which create a bond that lasts a lifetime. However warmly friends receive new pals’ partners there is a shift in dynamics which affects this sense of kinship.

It’s not as sad as it seems – we have wonderful, large and enchanting families and don’t need other people. But every now and then we think how nice it would be to lay the table for four, cook for another twosome, tell them our jokes and let them entertain us.

But when you get to our age, it’s not that straightforward – we don’t naturally cross paths with new people we would either contemplate breaking garlic bread with, or they with us. Where do couples find others without the danger of it all becoming a bit dodgy? We’ve only recently found out about pampas grass, so we don’t want to be making any terrible mistakes and ending up in the papers.

Wondering if our friend-making skills may be lacking we joined a minibus trip to a coastal beauty spot. We had a lovely time, but didn’t come away with any dinner invitations.

When the woman in charge in the front passenger seat turned round and asked who would like a loan of her leather (to clear the windows you understand) – and not a soul but us stifled giggles – we realised we were much better off alone together.